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Schools urged to provide training, goals for youth with disabilities

TDSB committee calls for action plan to give all high school students prospects for the future.

Sarah Jama, a former TDSB student, is shown outside Hamilton City Hall where she works for councillor Matthew Green. Jama, a McMaster grad and advocate, has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair and walkers. She appeared at a recent TDSB meeting asking the board to approve an action plan to ensure disabled students get more workplace and skills training. (Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star)

For Sarah Jama, working as a day camp counsellor the summer after Grade 11 was more than just a first job.

It was also “the gateway” to future employment, she says.

That job at a Toronto District School Board program helped Jama — who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair — envision her future as a valued employee and participant in the community.

“A lot of my experiences wouldn’t have started if I didn’t start to see myself as employable,” says Jama, 23. She went on to work part-time at McMaster University during her first year as a social sciences student, and now has two jobs since graduating last year.

But too often, high school students with disabilities aren’t getting that message, she says. Nor are they learning the pre-employment skills or how to access the supports they need to find work and plan for their futures.

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Jama is among a group of students, parents and advocates determined to change that. They are calling on the TDSB to put an action plan in place aimed at better preparing those pupils for life after high school.

After hearing their proposals earlier this month, a TDSB committee will ask the board to support the idea at its Feb. 7 meeting, and report back in May with steps to be put in place next fall.

Those could include more pre-employment training through co-ops and other placements, linking students with potential employers and post-secondary programs, and tracking their plans and outcomes after they leave school.

“If we can close that gap, it could change lives,” says trustee Chris Glover, adding that the equity plan underway at the board makes it an opportune time.

He says too frequently students with physical or developmental disabilities such as autism, who can stay in school until age 21, “transition into nothing” amid a shortage of day programs or other options. It’s not uncommon for a parent to quit work in order to stay home and care for them.

They are at higher risk of poverty, unemployment and exclusion from their communities, and the TDSB has an important role to play in raising expectations and prospects for those students, he says.

The concern has been front and centre at special education forums in his Etobicoke ward.

The recent call to action is supported by Joe Dale, executive director of the Ontario Disability Employment Network. In a written submission, he cited U.S. research showing that for adults with severe disabilities, having one paid job in high school is the number one predictor of future employment.

Parents and students cite a shortage of programs offering job-related skills and hands-on experience, and barriers for many students trying to access those that are available.

Former TDSB student Terrence Bishundayal, who attends Humber College and has a physical disability, told the committee it took him three years to find his first paid job after graduating from Martingrove Collegiate in 2013. He hadn’t learned how to navigate the job market, apply for positions or contact organizations that could support him in the process. In 2016, he was hired as an admissions associate at Canada’s Wonderland.

The push for schools to focus on equipping disabled students with life and work skills also has the support of a major local youth employer.

The TDSB could have “a significant impact” by championing inclusive hiring and helping students better prepare for workplaces, said Virginia Ludy, chief executive officer of the Canadian National Exhibition Association.

The CNE, which hires about 5,000 students each summer, has a five-year goal of ensuring 18 per cent of its work force includes people with disabilities — mirroring the population. Ludy told trustees it’s good for business and workplaces, adding those employees scored slightly higher than others on performance evaluations last year.

Sarah Jama says without people assuring her she was capable and could be accommodated in the workplace, “I never would have learned the skills to be able to graduate and find a job right away.”

Jama, who was encouraged by a trustee to apply for the day camp job at age 16, currently works for a Hamilton city councillor and at the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion.

Everyone has a right to work and contribute, regardless of their disabilities, she added. But without support, students with intellectual disabilities are at particular risk of being set up for failure, she added.

Some advocates say the inequity starts with the fact the province doesn’t track outcomes or graduation rates for students in special education or with developmental disabilities. Yet overall graduation rates are often cited as measures of success by individual schools and the province. Those statistics are based on students who finish high school within five years, which excludes youth who stay until age 21.

But the Ministry of Education has started to compile “cohort graduation data on students with special education needs,” says spokesperson Heather Irwin.

She said the province supports “integrated transition planning for students with physical and developmental disabilities to facilitate a smooth transition to post-secondary pathways” with input from principals, educators, students and their families, and community services.

To Sharon Gabison of Maple, mother of a 20-year-old son with autism, schools should be doing their best to equip students with disabilities so they can work and live up to their potential.

Her son will finish school this year without a diploma and she is searching for options where he can receive support to learn basic life and work skills.

A highlight of his experience at the York Region District School Board has been a co-op placement at a local pharmacy, with the support of a school staff member, where he stocks shelves and helps out an hour a week.

People know him and he enjoys it. But he needs more of those experiences along with hands-on skill building, and a plan that includes goals, she says.

Bharathy Vivekanatham of the South Asian Autism Awareness Centre supports the idea of schools playing a bigger role in the transition to work.

As employment assistance co-ordinator at the Scarborough centre, she has seen the positive results of supporting young adults with autism as they learn workplace skills and behaviour.

The centre has been running a work placement program for the past three years, thanks to grants from the Opportunities Fund for adults with disabilities run by Employment and Social Development Canada.

By September, 50 young adults with autism — some with the initial support of a job coach — will have worked at jobs that range from folding towels and linen at a hotel, to setting tables and welcoming guests at a restaurant and filing at a local law firm. Some have been hired following the 24-week program.

A focus on training, encouragement and goal-setting at high school could help motivate those students and challenge them to reach their potential, Vivekanatham said.

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